The past month I've been gone, both schools finished. I wonder if I graduated or failed… Either way is fine. It was also my eleventh birthday. I'm still too young for what I've done so far in life… I wish I was older... I'm a child going to be leading an army.

The city of Shienta wasn't the same city… It was far more defensible position than it was before. Every tower had a giant crossbow personally installed by my troops. The doors were far more barricaded than previously. It would take a few days to break the doors down now, instead of a few minutes. 

Inside the towers was full of what appeared to be rocks and barrels of what I would assume to be oil of some kind. You could throw that on pirates trying to climb the walls and light them on fire. Huge deterrent for trying to scale the walls. I make it inside and start to look around when someone yells behind me.

“Welcome back master!”

Gobber noticed me and yelled out before I had noticed him. He seemed extremely happy. I look close to him and Lance is carrying a few supplies for him. Did Gobber take on Lance as a follower or subordinate? He looked less happy than Gobber. I couldn't tell very well but he looked slightly sadder than normal. I'll have to ask later.

“Yea sorry I was gone so long Gobber. I had to sort a few things out at the capital. Everything is fine now. So what happened while I was gone.”

Before Gobber had a chance to talk, Lance spoke.

“Kattie… Died in an attack...”

WHAT! I have to ask for more information!

“What happened!?”

“She healed a man who was injured and he killed her when she was finished… Gobber explained that the man's name was Burke… He had a grudge against you and Gobber, so he tried to kill Gobber because of that… Kattie was just collateral damage.”

WHAT! Burke attacked someone for such a stupid reason… WHY! That makes no sense. I didn't see him as a threat at all… FUCK!… If only… If only I had killed him when I had the chance… 

Trait Greed reactivated 

I hear a familiar voice.

“Hehehehe. HAHHAHAHA! HO HO HO HO!! I told you! I said you'd regret locking me away! If you'd have had me, I would have never allowed such a dangerous person to go free. I'd have killed all of his goons for their power and for levels… That's the problem with you kindness types… You only see the problem at surface value. I knew a mile away how bad Burke really was! If you'd have just let me stick around your friend wouldn't have died!”

I couldn't answer him… He was right… If I wasn't so kind I would have definitely killed him.

“That is another problem… If you hadn't noticed yet, you take it easy on all the humans you fight. The only people you  have fought with all your might, you killed in a second with your knives cannon… Imagine that for every single fight you've went against. You could have killed a few other people. Maybe getting more skills and levels… You're weaker because you're so kind.”

As right as he is… As much of this is my fault… I can't let him win! If greed takes over he'll get all of my friends killed.

“DO YOU EVEN HEAR YOURSELF! Go through my memories! They're loaded with good memories of me with friends. Stop cherry picking the one time I hit my kid and look at the big picture! You need me. Without me other people will still be ruthless. Other people will still kill your friends. Other people will still take advantage of you! Every single chance they get.”

“...Fine… I'll listen to you… BUT! If you EVER! Risk my friends lives for money EVER! I'll destroy you again.”

I can almost hear greed smile in my head… Wow that feels gross. Aegis chimes in.

“If you two ladies are done arguing Lance has been talking this entire time.”

Shit! What was he saying! I was talking to myself. Aegis got me covered though.

“He said while it is unfixable it's a part of life. He understands that you were doing what you thought was right by not killing him. How it was partially his own fault and partially Gobbers fault for not seeing him as a threat. And most importantly it was Burkes fault the most for doing it. Also Burke was killed. And that's where he's at.

As soon as Aegis finished his summary of what Lance said, Lance spoke again.

“I'm sorry Kite… I just wish… I wish I could have done more to stop it from happening. I don't know what to do with myself anymore Kite...”

“You just live Lance. Nothing is going to bring her back. If you want to stop anything like that from happening again you need to get stronger. So strong no one ever wants to hurt anyone close to you again! Just keep getting stronger. It will all work itself out eventually.”

I think what I said cheered him up a little bit… He seemed like he was already almost over it. Seeing me made him sad again, so me cheering him up is a good thing. Death is too common of an experience for everyone in this world to be bogged down by it. I wonder when it happened. Gobber finally spoke up.

“Well now since that is out of the way. Since no one else has brought it up… WHAT THE DEATH GOD HAPPENED TO YOUR HAND!?”

Lance looked down at my hand and his eyes widened intensely. He must have not noticed at all. I'm already over it but I guess people who haven't seen me in a long time would see that as different.

“I fought a raid boss and blew it up along with my hand.”

Normally that sentence would shock anyone else. Since both people knew me though they knew I wasn't lying and it was completely believable to them. Gobber spoke up again.

“Ok so now that I know that I have another question. WHAT THE DEATH GOD HAPPENED TO SOCK!?”

Lance turned and noticed Sock for the first time. He jumped back, startled by Sock's new appearance. Sock answered that question.

“I got stronger.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

If it was anyone else they probably would have been shocked for longer… Seriously, you don't realize how much you change until you see someone who knew you from before you did. Gobber spoke up.

“Any other surprises you got for us?”

“After speaking with the king I gained the demon race as troops. We're going to wage war on the pirates before they head here.”

Finally surprise showed in their faces again… I almost laugh at how much I could surprise people in a row. Gobber looks at Kline finally. They noticed someone new was following me. Gobber was assessing him… It's probably the first time Kline has ever seen a hobgoblin speak such fluent common, so he's as shocked as Gobber and Lance were. I'll have to pull Gobber aside and explain they think I'm a demigod later. I look around for other people I know and greet them. My troops will head back to the fortress for now. We need to finish mining through the mountain before long.

Almost a week has passed since I've returned. I met with Lance's group… Everyone was downtrodden from what had transpired… Some wanted to quit adventuring because of it. Leon was definitely the worst… I feel bad for him but there is nothing I can do. It would be a huge waste if they quit. I gave them Gargarz to replace her fill her spot… I wont use words like replace when speaking of the dead… Greed spoke up.

“Why do you care so much? I'm just sad she didn't let us see that book before she died. Would have been nice to pick up a few extra moves before she outlived her purpose.”

“Really! It hasn't even been a whole week and I want to get rid of you again.”

Aegis cut both of us off.

“Both of you are fighting over the same thing! How do you not see that? You are both sad she's gone. It doesn't matter that greed only seen her as a pawn. She was valuable enough for him to miss her… That's about the best your going to get with sadness when it comes to greed.”

Aegis has been having to break up these fights between us ever since Greed reactivated. Greed spoke up again.

“Yea I'll miss her but she isn't a Gobber… I can't believe you were going to kill that asset when you first met him, you hypocrite!”

I'll ignore Greed for now. He's only trying to bait me anyways… And I'm better than him… YOU HEAR THAT GREED!

Over the next few weeks since Lance's group has left. I've been training and getting everything set up for when the demon tribes show up. I visit town everyday, looking for them and healing the injured in the slums. I cast regrowth on them after I inject my numbing poison, then give them a few more vials of poison. Just in case the first one wears off... 

Another thing I did was visit Merlin. After convincing him to give me some gold I made two enchanting tables for him. He didn't understand what I did until I placed eight pieces of paper down and enchanted them. He was very happy with the outcome. It would increase the speed he could crank out rares. The shortage of paper was still a problem. I also told the city guards, if they see the demon tribe to send them towards my fortress…

While I gained a few levels in master of teaching from my visit to the capital. It and spellthief are by far my lowest classes. Beast rider is also low since I don't participate in mounted combat. It is the only other class that isn't above 20… Over the next year I plan on getting them all passed the 25 threshold when they'll get a new skill.

Finally the demon tribes show up… Totaling one hundred soldiers… The rest are women and children not fit to fight… Oh god of life this is all that's left of them? I don't see him… In the group… Where's Epieoth? Did he die fighting against the other region? I hear someone from the crowd yell at me… Never mind he's standing right in front of me.

“Hey Kite, how have you been?”

“I have some things to talk to you about, before we continue.”

I spend the rest of the day explaining everything that's happened to Epieoth. I feel I can trust him since he's already spared my life once. I'll also need to start befriending the demon tribe before we go to fight the pirates anyways. Epieoth will be their leader, if he's not the strongest than I'll make him a sub leader. 

Epieoth was surprised when I told him I took down a raid boss by myself and the king thinks I'm a demigod now. Thanks to that I managed to get the demon tribes their freedom… A whole race of people brought down to numbers under one thousand… Even if they manage to avoid fighting I don't think they'll survive as a race for much longer… Epieoth has been looking at me weirdly. Like theirs something wrong with me... I hope it doesn't become a problem.

I gather all my generals and explain the plan. Each one will go off and do their own thing for one year. Zergnar should work on gaining pets and leveling the remaining gnoll troops. I'll give him most of the soldiers and a healing gnoll for his travels. I hope he gets a lot of nice pets for us.

Gobber needs to get stronger… My fortress is holding him back. I'll give him a few soldiers and Kline to heal him through dungeons. Hilda also goes with him, obviously.

Same with Sock, I'll let him travel with Nargzar, some of the other troops and Pokodo… They can technically have seven members including my pets. Since pets don't count towards the people count of dungeons.

Lastly I'm going to stay here and train until everything reaches 25… Besides spellthief, master of learning and beast rider. Which are my lowest/hardest to level classes. I will start leveling spellthief by fighting other spellthieves from the demon tribes. I need to befriend the new troops anyways. With the plans setup, their is nothing more to do until the meeting time 1 year from now. When my generals will come back and surprise me with their progress.